Rail bond



Fatented July 29, 1924.

' entree stares 1,502,836 PATENT. OFFICE.

MATTHEW 7H. nonennrnen, or eosorii, new JERSEY, ASSIGNO'B To ATLAS RAILWAY SIGNAL COMPANY, A CORPORATION on NEW JERSEY.

RAIL BOND.

To all whom e't may concern.

Be it'lrnown that I, MATTHEW H. LoUGH- RIDGE, a citizen of the United States, residing at Bogota, in the count-y of Bergen and State of New Jersey, have invented new and useful Improvements in Bail Bonds, of which the following a specification.

This invention relates to rail bonds such as are used to provide electrical conductivlty for the joint of a railroad track and has for an object to reduce the cost and, also, to improve bonds of this character by avoiding secondary contacts where they are secured to the rails. These objects are. secured by the construction shown in the accompanying drawings in which, Fig. 1 is a plan view showing the method of securing this bond to the rail, Figs. 2, 3, 4c, 5 and 6 are cross-sections taken on Fig. l'correspond ingly lettered; Fig. 7 is a side view of a rail joint with this system of bonding in use and Fig. 8, shows the bond wires before applying to the joint.

In bonding rail joints, particularly for track circuits. the customary procedure is to provide two wires, usually No. 8 B. W. G. galvanized iron, or No. 6 l3. & S. copper. A hole is drilled in the rail somewhat larger than the wire and a taper channel pin is driven into the hole and thus secures the end of the bond wire to the rail, each end is secured just outside or" the fish plates, thus providing a metallic bridge for electrical conductivity between the rails. For reliability of operation, two bond wires are required the complet bonding of a joint thus requires the drilling of four holes in the rails and the use of four channel pins. The present invention eliminates the channel pins and enables joints to be bonded with.

two bond wires by drilling two holes in the rails.

In Fig. 7, 11 and 11 represent the ends of two rails at a joint in the track having the usual fish plate 12. 16 and 17 represent bond wires of the joint, the ends of these wires are secured in holes 13 drilled in the rail. The means for securing these wires will be understood by reference to Figs. 1 to 6 inclusive showing the construction on an enlarged scale.

The end of one bond wire 14:, maintains its circular cross-section and is, therefore unchanged The other end 15, is shaped with a tapering channel of varying crosssection as shown. In Figs. 2 to 6 inclusive, the outline of the hole drilled in the railis indicated by the circle 13 having its centre on the vertical line shown. It will be noted from the crosssection c-c, Fig. 4 that the two wires almost fill the hole 13 with the exception of the spaces 23. The bottom of the channel 21 in wire 15 tapers off at 22, giving a section at b b larger than the hole 13 and a circular section at w-a for both wires. In section d0Z the channel in wire 15 is deeper than at c0 and when the two wires are held together so as to close the gap 25 a clearance space 2a is provided as shown in Fig. 5 between the wires and the hole 13. Insection 6-6 the channel tapers ofi again until wire 15 assumes the circular section.

In applying these bond wires, wire 15 is first inserted in the hole in the rail, section (Z being within the hole up to about point 77'. The end of wire lt can now be in serted in the clearance through the hole,

/Vire15 bends at 31. near the point Where it leaves the rail and the bottom of the channel in this wire can be projected in almost a straight line as indicated by the dotted line 26. This facilitates the entrance of wire 1% into the hole. When these wires are thus assembled they are driven by the use of a hammer on end a 'a to the left,v thus tightening them in the rail as in section cc. The full cross-section of both wires at a(z facilitates this driving operation.

Since no channel pins are used th contact is made directly between the bond wires and the rail.

As previously mentioned, bond Wires are used in pairs and in this invention one end of each bond wire is channeled and the other end is plain. A channeled end and a plain end are inserted in each hole as shown in Fig. 7, the arrangement of the wires being indicated in Fig. 8. In this application the wires are supported 011 the bottom flange of the rail, the ends 14 and 15 being bent for this purpose. It will be noted that this same arrangement can be inverted when the bond wires are located under th head of the rail.

It is preferred that the channeled wire be also bent at 31 in the operation of swedging the channel to guard against the possibility of bending this wire on the channel section in the field, otherwise these wires are bent with pliers in the field to fit the joint.

Since only one end of the wires: is channeled, they may be made any length and they are interchangeable.

Attention is called to the fact that in this construction the one wire supports the other where they lead out from the rail.

While the illustrations show this invention applied to comparatively small bond wires, I wish it't o be'understood that the construction is not limited to small Wires but can be applied with corresponding results to wires e f-comparatively large diameters.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

'1. In a rail bond, a pair of wires, one of said wires having near its end a channel to fit the other wire gradually decreasing in depth toward the end of the wire.

2. In a rail bond, a pair of wires, one of said wires having a groove of varying depth near its end to fit the complementary end of the other wire and together forming a section of substantially circular cross-section.

3. In a rail bond, a pair of wires of substantially the same sectional area througout, one of said wires shaped near the end into a tapered groove and together with the complementary end of the other wire, forming a tapered section of substantially circular cross-section with the larger end of the taper toward the end of the wires.

4:. A railbond consisting of a plurality of wires for bonding a rail joint, one of said wires near the end so deformed that that the cross section has a concave and a convex portion, the convex portion having a radius greater than the normal radius of the wire and when placed adjacent the complementary end of the other wire forming a section of substantially circular crosssection.

5. A bond for rail joints, consisting of a plurality of wires each of substantially the same sectional area throughout, a formed section in one of said wires near the end to receive the complementary end of another of said wires and together forming a substantially circular cross-section near the endwo'f each of said wires of larger diameter than the individual wires.

6. A bond for a rail joint, consisting of a pair of wires, a section for-med on a taper in each of said wires near the end to match the complei'nentary end of the other wire, said wires when placed together forming a tapered section of substantially circular cross-section of larger diameter than the individual wires.

7. A rail bond consisiting of a plurality of wires each of substantially the same sectional area throughout for bonding a rail jont, one of said wires near the end shaped on an inclined plane to receive the other of said wires and when placed adjacent forming a tapered section of substantially circular cross-section, the larger end of said taper being at the extreme end of said wires.

8. An article of manufacture consisting of a pair of wires of substantially uniform sectional area, each of said wires shaped at oneend to form a portion of a circle of larger diameter than said wire and having a groove to receive the complementary end of the other wire, said wires when placed adjacent forming a section of substantially circular cross-section at each end of larger diameter than the individual wires.

MATTHEW H. LOUGHRIDGE. 

